Static and Spark
by JasperK
Summary: Static and Spark. Vash and Wolfwood. These two generate stories all on their own. (Manga Spoilers - marked at the beginning of each chapter)
1. Chapter 1

**The Trickiest Assignment Yet**

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_Manga spoilers: Trigun Maximum vol 1,7,8_

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At least respect the title. Wolfwood grouched to himself as he trudged through the desert kicking up sand with the tips of his shoes so that it scattered across the spiky haired shadow that bobbed ahead of him.

He was an assassin! That was what people who took out contracts with the Eye of Michael expected. How had this somehow been misunderstood? He, Wolfwood, had been presented with Vash the Stampede as his target. Surely, he had to be the greatest target in all history? Vash was the most dangerous man on the planet! However, things were never as they seemed around Vash the Stampede. Oh no. He'd been hired to keep his target alive so his client could kill him later. Who ever heard of something so absurd?

With one twisted contract, he had become a glorified babysitter! The gall and the bitterness of it all. The absurdity and ridicule! If the Eye of Michael found out - Ugh. If the Eye of Michael found out anything about it all, him impersonating Chapel, him trying to kill his employer, him trying to protect the orphans, him going renegade…. - He'd be so much of a blood splatter on the indifferent desert sands. The amount of crap he was in, he could not even begin to describe it.

However, somehow, he wondered if they knew. They had ears all over. Moreover, as Knives was their absolute superior, and Knives knew of him and let him live, even after he had tried killing him… then damn, it did not matter if the Eye of Michael knew or not. All that mattered was Knives. Yet, from what he had seen, Vash did not actually need babysitting. Not really. He had a sort of luck so awful that it left him alive further to prolong the suffering. However, Wolfwood knew his own luck was so bad that he would have to work at everything he had to keep Vash alive. Because, if Vash died, he would be dead.

Wolfwood had met twisted people before, but Knives eerily took it to a new level. He did not need Legato as an example to imagine the plant giving him a swift death if he made that mistake. No, Vash would live, he would see to it. He needed to stay alive himself for those children. Oh why had God set him up like this? He had to be the most blood stained guardian angel ever. A guardian angel, over the children… and Vash. The man was a plant, should it not have been the other way around?

Wolfwood felt a strange emotion then, one so long buried in his calloused heart that he did not know what it was at first. A strange combination of hope and longing, one he had last felt on being adopted, before being betrayed by the Eye of Michael. That perhaps there might be a small chance that Vash could come to care for him. He lifted his head and stared at the back of the tall man he followed. He wished the man had chosen a different time to experiment with hair dye, the black and the blond looked odd. If he were a good friend, he could make that into a fine insult.

A friend. The uncomfortable emotions shifted around inside him, fear and hope franticly trying to strangle each other to gain dominance. He had not had a real friend since leaving the orphanage. Yes. That was a better thought than simply remaining around Vash to keep him alive for his mercurial brother. It was better. He knew it was better, but why did it hurt so damn much?


	2. Chapter 2

**The Water**

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_Manga Spoilers? (maybe tiny ones) Trigun Maximum vol 1_

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Wolfwood took out his water canteen and hefted it. He then carefully drank, eyeing the horizon. If the men in the Saloon had been correct, it was another day and a half to the nearest town. He twisted the lid closed again and shook it slowly, feeling the heft of the water inside. Too little. He was beginning to know that by feel now. That was what walking a few hundred miles in the desert did to one. He put it away. They would have to push on, which would only require more water. He glanced across at Vash.

Gah! The man was holding his own canteen up to the sky and peering into it. As if any water that was in there would not have poured out into his eye. Which meant that he had the only water, for both of them, for a whole day!

"Spikey!" He snapped.

"What?" Vash asked, lowering the canteen with a disappointed expression.

"You drank all your water, _again_!"

"Yes? Yes I did." Vash said his green eyes wide with puzzlement, as if to say 'that is what one does with water'. Wolfwood ignored the expression. If he paid any attention, he would be very tempted to swing his Cross Punisher at the man. So he ignored him. Very deliberately. He worked very hard at ignoring him. It almost worked, if he lied to himself.

"We still have another day of walking through the desert!" He ground out.

"So?"

Wolfwood clenched his fist around the strap with which he held the Cross Punisher over his shoulder. Keep your temper, Wolfwood. Gah! Those wide innocent eyes, they made the man look as though he had nothing in his head! That was about right if this incident were evidence of a brain. Wolfwood glared.

"You're not drinking mine!"

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Vash whined.

Wolfwood hunched his shoulders, hiked the Cross Punisher higher on his back and picked up the pace.

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Five hours later, the desert was still hot, sandy, and empty of any sign of habitation. It was also, unfortunately, very, very full of an endless string of whiney utterances.

"Ok! Ok!" Wolfwood snapped. "You may have a _sip_."

He set the Cross Punisher into the sand and unbuckled the canteen from his belt. He handed the water over and watched Vash with a beady eye. He had only relented because the man just did not know how to shut up. Ugh, the wide-eyed happy puppy dog expression was almost nauseatingly cute. Did he practice in front of the mirror, Wolfwood wondered as Vash took the canteen. No. He would have done something about that strange empty expression in his eyes if he had. That emptiness, he suspected, was what really made him hand over his precious water.

"And no backwashing!" He grouched. "And only _one_ sip."

To his surprise, Vash took a careful sip and handed the canteen back to him.

"Sheesh!" Wolfwood scolded. "All that whining!"

"I just wanted some water." Vash said, hurt.

That hurt expression on top of the empty one, twisted him inside a knife in his gut. It made him want to give the man all his water.

"'I just wanted some water' is a very, very succinct way to put three hours of determined nagging and whinging!" Wolfwood snapped, firmly reminding himself they had a whole night to get through and then perhaps half a day. He could not have any more water now, and neither could Vash.

"Nagging and whinging!" Vash protested.

Wolfwood felt his hackles rise. The man didn't get it did he? What effect he had on people around him? He was so close to pounding the man.

"Spikey!" Wolfwood flung his arms up, and to his horror, a fountain of water arced over his head. They both looked at the damp patch, which had been the last of the water.

"You _forgot _to put the lid on!" Wolfwood roared in fury.

"I thought you were going to drink!" Vash snapped back.

They looked at the damp patch again. Wolfwood marched off in inarticulate fury; he had to get away, now!

"Hey! You forgot the lid." Vash called after him.

Wolfwood scowled at the skies overhead. Contract or no contract, so help him, he was going to _kill_ the man! His fists shook with the effort of not turning around.

"Hey! Hey Wolfwood. You forgot your Cross!"

Wolfwood froze.

He turned around, walked back with a brisk stride. Without even a grunt with the effort it took, he grabbed the Cross Punisher, hiked it over his shoulder, and stormed off. He heard when Vash decided to follow him. He was not angry any more. No, shock had completely killed the anger. The Cross Punisher was like an extra limb. It was part of him, closer than anything. It was what he turned to in anger, fear and outrage. Yet, this time, when he had felt all those things, he had not. What in the world was happening to him? He listened to Vash's footfalls on the sand behind him. That man. That _plant_. Between him and his damned brother, they had turned his life upside down. And, not for the first time, Wolfwood wondered if it were in some strange twisted way, for the better.


	3. Chapter 3 - Spikey II

**Spikey II**

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_Manga Spoilers: Trigun Maximum Vol 1_

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"Water!" Wolfwood dunked his whole head into the large bucket under the pump and came up dripping water everywhere.

Vash knelt beside it and caught the fresh water that flowed from the pump.

"Hey! Stop! Stop that!" He yelled as Wolfwood shook his hair, spraying water everywhere. Vash wiped his face and shook out his hand.

The priest grinned at him and ran his hands through his hair. He examined himself in the reflection in the glass front of the shop beside the pump. He made some adjustments as Vash took a long drink of water.

"Now I look like you, Spikey!"

He glanced up to find Wolfwood solemnly posing with his hair stuck up in a bad impersonation of his own elegant style.

"What would that make you?" Vash asked with a grin. "Spikey Two?"

"Gah!" Wolfwood rolled his eyes and scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Eh, Spikey. I was wondering something. I mean, of all the colours to choose, why black?"

"Huh?" Vash asked.

"Your hair!" Wolfwood gestured in exasperation. "I'd have gone for red; it would have matched your coat."

Vash reached up and touched his hair where he knew it grew in black.

"I didn't dye it." He said slowly.

"Huh?" Wolfwood said baffled. "What ya mean? One of those girls got you? You must have been so drunk!" He chortled.

"It looks kinda silly, doesn't it?" Vash laughed.

"Kinda!" Wolfwood echoed the empty laugh and frowned at Vash. "What happened? Did you say something bad to the short one?"

"What?" Vash laughed it off. "No, nothing like that."

"Did you _do_ something very bad?" Wolfwood grinned, his tone lilting with insinuation.

"Wha? What? No. No I never did!" Vash protested. "If you want to know, I woke up with it like this the day after that fifth moon incident."

"Huh?"

Vash tried to work out how to explain it.

"You know, you hear stories of people getting such a shock that their hair turns white?"

"Yes?" Wolfwood said slowly.

"Well, mine turned black."

Wolfwood looked away. As much as he wanted answers, he did not dare put Vash through the agony of asking him about the fifth moon incident. In his nightmares, he sometimes saw a treacherous tear run down the man's face as his brother held him. He wished he had not brought up the subject. He had no right to drag another man's torment out for examination, especially as he really did not want his own examined.

"We've had our water." He said brightly, changing the subject. "Let's go get something with more of a kick!"


End file.
